Why Should We Care About Attachment Styles

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Why Should We Care About Attachment Styles?
Early Attachment Patterns and their Long-Term
Implications
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• _____________ a deep, loving, close, and
  enduring relationship strong emotional ties
  formed to one or more intimate companions.
• Serves an adaptive function
• Infants are basically helpless
• Attachment figure provides safety security

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Origins of Attachment Theory John Bowlby

• Observed post-WWII orphans
• Children exhibited depression other emotional
  problems
• Began investigating infant-parent relationships
  (Bowlby 1958 1969)
• Recognized an inherent _________ in parent-child
  relationships

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Origins of Attachment TheoryHarry Harlow

• Harlows rhesus monkeys (1958)
• 2 surrogate mothers
• a wire surrogate that fed the infant
• a cloth surrogate that did not feed the infant

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Origins of Attachment TheoryMary Ainsworth

• Observed mothers and infants in Uganda
• Noted differences in separations
• Developed the ______________
• Participants 100 one-year old infants and
• their mothers
• Method Series of interactions between a parent,
  infant, and unfamiliar woman/stranger
• Designed to assess infants attachment style by
  observing the childs behaviors each time he/she
  is separated from or reunited with the parent

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Attachment Style Behaviors

• Results
• ________ Upset when caregiver leaves, happy when
  he or she returns
• ________________ Upset when caregiver leaves,
  simultaneously seeks comfort and is upset when
  caregiver returns.
• _________________ Not upset when caregiver
  leaves, little reaction when he or she returns.
• ______________ (added in 1988) Inconsistent
  behaviors

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Strange Situation Study

• Original Results (Ainsworth Bell, 1970)
• Secure 66
• Insecure
• Resistant/ambivalent 12
• Avoidant 22
• More recently (with the addition of 4th style)
• Secure 60-70
• Insecure
• Resistant/ambivalent 10
• Avoidant 20-25
• Disorganized 5-8

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Cultural Differences in Attachment(Van
Ijzendoorn Sagi, 1999)
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Whats the point?

• Babies may experience separation anxiety
• Caregiver may respond appropriately (secure
  attachment formed) or inappropriately (insecure
  attachment formed)
• ____________________ (infant and parent
  temperament)
• Attachment figure serves as a secure base, or a
  source of comfort
• Serves an adaptive function

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Yeah, so why should we care?

• Attachment type has long-term effects on
• Social outcomes (in childhood and beyond)
• Adult romantic relationships
• Psychological health
• But before we talk about these

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What makes attachment enduring?

• The ways we think about ourselves and others!
• ________-model
• How I think about myself
• _________-model
• How I think about others

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Social Effects of Attachment in Childhood
Adolescence

• Securely attached children are more well liked by
  other toddlers (Fagot, 1997)
• Securely attached children have better
  relationships with peers in adolescence
  (Schneider, Atkinson, Tardif, 2001)

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Attachment and Adult Relationships

• Attachment style may impact
• How responsive,
• how understanding, and
• how open an individual is in a close relationship
  (Reis, 2006)

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So, what does adult attachment look like?

• Similar, but different labels than infant
  attachment
• (adapted from Bartholomew Horowitz, 1991)

Model of Self
positive
negative
positive
Secure (Secure)
Preoccupied (Anxious/Ambivalent)
Model of Other
Dismissing (Avoidant)
Fearful (Disorganized)
negative
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Really, what does adult attachment look like?

• Airport Separations (Fraley Shaver, 1998)
• Phase 1
• Observed 13 separating couples (out of view) in
  an airport and made careful notes of their
  behaviors

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Behaviors of Separating AdultsResults from
Phase 1 (Fraley Shaver, 1998)

• Before boarding, he reads the newspaper and she
  leans her head on his shoulder
• Kissed several times when she tries to leave
• Both hold each other for approximately 5 min.
• Tears in eyes both members wipe the others
  tears away
• She goes back to the window and watches the plane
  leave
• Petting others head
• Extended hand stretch
• Long hug both are crying
• At departure, she is last to board the plane
• Intimate kiss
• She walks away crying
• She whispers I love you to him as she boards

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Airport Separations

• Phase 2
• Designed questionnaire including
• Demographics
• gender, age, race, etc.
• Relationship history
• Feelings about the future separation
• Attachment style questionnaire
• Instrument specifically used to classify people
  into attachment dimensions

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Airport Separations Phase 2

• Participants
• 109 couples 57 separating from each other, 43
  flying together
• Age 16-68 (mean 34)
• 47 married 43 dating 10 engaged
• Average length of relationship 6 years

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Airport Separations Phase 2

• Method
• Female member of research team approached couple
  in airport lobby and asked if they were willing
  to fill out a brief questionnaire about modern
  travel and close relationships.
• If couple agreed, researcher waited nearby.
• Researcher thanked couple and left.
• Another member of research team pretended to wait
  for the next flight and sat within view of couple
  and took notes until both members of the couple
  left the gate.

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Airport Separations Phase 2

• Results
• Caregiving, contact seeking, contact maintenance,
  and sexual responses were more common in
  separating couples (secure behaviors)
• Highly avoidant women
• Further away from partner, less care support
• Highly anxious men
• Less contact with partner

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Attachment and Psychopathology

• Attachment may serve as a risk factor or
  protective factor
• Psychopathology in Childhood
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder
• Gender Identity Disorder
• Insecure attachment style is correlated with
  these disorders less likely to see secure
  attachment.

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Attachment and Psychopathology

• Psychopathology in Adulthood
• Mood disorders (e.g., depression due to loss of
  attachment figure)
• Anxiety disorders (more common in adults with
  resistantly attached as infants)

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Attachment and Psychotherapy

• Individual Therapy
• Family Therapy
• Couples Therapy
• Work on improving security in close
  relationships.